Soldier

By Jabber-Nut Foxypants

Nut: Hi! Chapter four of Soldier! I give thanks to all my loyal reviewers and hope you enjoy this story as much as I did writing it. So with out further stalling, I present Soldier Chapter Four, My Return.

Chapter Four

End Of The Line

Kai kept riding away from the Spartan army and the Prince's father who sent him to fetch his son. I'm no dog, Kai thought to himself as he slowed the palomino to a walk. He stopped and looked around, trying to figure out where to start looking first. He patted his horse's neck and whispered into his ear, "Do you have any idea where they went?"

He stomped his foot on the ground, reminding Kai the Spartan army brought war horses, and that he was tired of just walking across the desert sand.

"Yeah, I know." Kai kept petting the course hair up and down the horse's neck. He still kept his eyes looking. The sun was quick to sink behind the ocean and the wind was starting to brew up sand.

"Tamahontei!" Kai called. He wasn't getting anywhere and he wasn't even in his own time anymore; he had no idea where and how the Prince was going to conceal himself. And he sure as hell wasn't going back to camp empty handed, that's if he wanted to keep his head on his shoulders.

The palomino pulled on the reins fastening his steps as he kept walking.

"Just pull back on the reins."

Kai turned to the source of the voice and sure enough… his other half appeared from the whirling sands. "Alright…" Kai said as he followed the advice. The horse came to a stop right beside Tamahontei.

"War horses are trained like that. To respond the instant the reins are let loose or tightened," Tamahontei said leading his horse away.

"Tamahontei, your fa…"

"I know who sent you," he snapped, "It was my father. He wanted a son when he married my mom, but the reason for that wish was the most despicable thing I ever heard my mom tell me." He motioned for Kai to follow, but his horse already recognized the prince and started to follow.

"Your horse's name is Character," Tamahontei said with his eyes fixed on a bright star.

"Character huh?" responded Kai silently. A flash memory of the king's expression renewed his mind of the mission. "Tamahontei! We must get back to the army. I have a feeling if we go any further we'd be in the Trojans territory and your dad specifically ordered me to bring you back not further out. I don't care if I have to pony you back I will, and I promise the rope won't be on the horse's bridle."

"Now, you're even starting to sound like him… your grandfather Voltaire."

Kai's mind spun. How'd he know what Voltaire was like! This is a whole different time. With simple instincts and boiling blood Kai made his horse bolt and cut off Tamahontei before he could go any further. "How do you know Voltaire? He's after your time!"

"You still don't get it do you?" Tamahontei said closing his eyes and turning his eyes, obviously avoiding having to look in Kai's. "Why did you end up in this time? Why did you have to meet me first? Why does Prince Sharcause look like your rival Tala but him and I seem to know each quite well?" He opened his eyes quickly then glared into Kai's waiting for a response.

Thing is Kai had no idea how to answer that. "I… never… took the time to ask myself those questions…" Kai shook his head and gathered his cold tone. "But that still doesn't explain how you know Voltaire!"

Tamahontei's expression again changed but not to a shy but a snotty one. "I controlled the time and destination when you were pulled through time." He flipped his hair back before he continued. "I'm a time master. How I want time to go one is how time will go. I brought you here to fulfill your destiny. Here's another question for you… ever wonder why you weren't pulled into the future?"

Kai's expression told Tamahontei to just make the long story short and spill it.

"You have no future behind this point!"

"What?" Kai's sudden gasp of surprise and shaking made Character start to move uneasy underneath him. "What in the hell do you mean by that!" Kai managed under the pressure of calming his horse and his now pulsing heart.

"Exactly what it sounds like. You are supposed to come to this time and fulfill what destiny has been making you do forever. Ever since the beginning of technology and magic of times." Tamahontei grabbed Kai's reins from his hand and started walking back toward the camp.

Kai noticed Tamahontei had taken his reins but didn't process it. Was he going to die in this time? That couldn't be the "destiny" Tamahontei's talking about could it? "You… don't… mean…"

"To make things clearer for you…" Tamahontei said telling Character to speed up, "You are supposed to die. It wasn't me you vanished in the history books; it was future versions of me, past versions of you, whatever you want to call them. Past versions of me and past versions of you did this same thing. You are supposed to give up your life so I can live on and give future versions of you my attitude and skills of a soldier."

"But why, do I have to die to do that… and if future versions of me are going to get your attitude and skills… won't they have to be dragged through time and given this whole tutorial?" Kai said with a tiny cringe in his voice. When he noticed Tamahontei didn't say anything he proceeded to ask a question. "What would happen if I or one of my future selves skips out on being killed?"

"Well," the prince responded, "this is where I ask you this; what would you be doing right now if you didn't have the way of the soldier in planted in your stings of fate?"

Reluctantly, Kai answered with the probably truest answer. "Weak... unable to stand up for myself."

"Right you are. And even though you think you got your attitude and short temper from being in the abbey..."

"I don't think that!" Kai snapped, seizing his reins back quickly from the saddle horn of the royal stallion. "I developed my skills on my own! No prince, from two thousand years gave it to me because a past version of myself died so you could live!"

Tamahontei quickly glanced at something in the sky and followed it until it disappeared,

he closed his eyes.

"What is so important about a star?" asked Kai with a demanding tone.

"Your upsetting the balance you sack of wine!" shouted Tamahontei with a deep coldness in his eyes and a glare that would have given Sharcause a heart attack. "You talking like that and refusing to follow what the stars have lined out for you is upsetting the future! And that star was a sign of that! That star was a soul of yours going back in time!"

Kai not intimidating by Tamahontei's glare decided to answer with the cockiest statement he could think of. "How do you know it wasn't me going into the future to reclaim the body and mind that you took away from him?"

"Souls travel away from where the sun sets if they go back in time. They go toward the sunset if they go forward in time," said Tamahontei.

Kai noticed his voice was back to it's original self. Kai figured he was right about the star and Tamahontei didn't know everything. "But then you've never seen a star go toward the sunset, have you Tamahontei? You think you know everything how the future and past works. Well, I just logically figure out that the past can be reformed and the future can be unpredictable."

Both the teenage boys were silent. Both unable to come up with anything to use as a come back.

Tamahontei just blinked a few times looking at the ground and made his way past Kai on his palomino. "Just ask my dad for the final results."

Kai followed the white stallion and rode silent for the whole ride back to the camp.

Fin

Nut: Yeah, so the ending sucks! Don't blame me! Okay, blame me but it's not my fault for the stinky cliffy! So review and be happy that I even updated! So there!

Laters!

Nut